Monday, 8 November 2010

2010FM - November Edition One

There is a considerable variety of styles and genres in the first November new music round up along with a considerable amount of globe trotting with artists from all over the place, maybe not something for everyone but certainly something different on occasion.

Some background on Jumpel who began life in 2005 when Jo Dürbeck, formerly of the German band Bones, began to write and record his own music. Prior to Bones, Jo’s formative musical experiences involved playing with empty detergent cans, boxes and a piano in his parents’ cellar. In 1986 he bought a Commodore C-64 computer and discovered electronic music.

Jo played keyboards, samples and loops in Bones, who over the course of eight years released three albums and seven singles with EMI Germany, and played over 400 gigs in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Then, after splitting up the band, Jo and Rene (Bones’ singer) founded their own company and studio and started writing and producing music for films. They wrote scores for numerous films and documentaries, and won the award for Best Score at the Film festival Valencia in 2006.

‘Edinburgh’ is taken from the forthcoming Jumpel album Europa (out November 25th). Inspired by Jo Dürbeck’s travels around Europe, the album transforms Dürbeck’s personal memories of 11 different European locations into minimal ambient electronica. The album acts as a kind of abstracted sonic diary, painting the intangibility's and romanticism of memory and travel using sparse yet resonant sound. A simple idea – and one that has produced Jumpel’s most restrained and unified effort to date.

A cool atmospheric start to this edition from an artist new to us and whom we hope to get to hear a lot more of.

Featured Track:Edinburgh.Website:Official.
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We quote - The Azú Project is a ground-breaking fusion Afro Peruvian Music and Jazz with pop infused elements mainly. The Saraswati Inti Project is a blend of Indian, Andean and American pop-Folk.

Corina Bartra was the first vocalist to blend Afro Peruvian, and criolla music & Jazz. She also pioneered subtle and exciting instrumental textures in her compositions and her arrangements. She writes extensive intros, interludes, and solos filled with inventive rhythms and beautiful harmonies. She also guides her musicians to do so. With this approach, she adds an instrumental section to her unique & historic projects.

The featured track has a beautiful jazz vibe, oh so calm and laid back and Corina's vocals are the perfect fit. It does not matter that I do not speak her language, this is proof that music crosses far more boundaries than any language can.

OK so this is from the publicity material, but it tells the story, so listen up!

Goldishack Guerrillas is a band on a mission: In a country where a culture of war has become business as usual, the Guerrillas fight back with a raucous mix of hip hop, guitars and political will to bring a message louder than any television.

Organic in its nature and sound, Goldishack had long been a headquarters for freestyle emcees and musicians. But when a holiday vacation turned into a war zone in 2006, things at the shack would never be the same. Lebanon was up in flames, and Goldi and his family were on the run from an Israeli bombing campaign. After a few harrowing weeks and a high-profile military evacuation, Goldi found himself in the hot seat of American news and a target of politicians and pundits. Back at the Shack, rage was building and the Guerrillas were born.

Fast forward and GG is on a roll with the release of War and two more albums nearing completion. Along with hip hop artists Kryciss (currently serving in the U.S. Army), Rcyn (from Cypha Cyndicate), UTK (from Beatards and Freestyle Love Supreme) and Shockwave (BeatBoxer Entertainment, Freestyle Love Supreme) and featuring other local greats, Goldishack is now headquarters for the musicians who seek more from their country, leaders and media. Presenting the Goldishack Guerrillas: your antidote to the war on justice.

Despite hip hop and me being poles apart, there is a considerable amount more to this group, and in recent months I have started to realise that some positive and thought provoking messages can be delivered and hit their target to a much wider audience when hip hop combines with other styles.

Featured Track:Rebel.Website:Official.
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DeWayne Matthew Counce, born October 23, 1984 in Minneapolis, Minnesota was raised and brought up in the Twin Cities area, more specifically in the city of Brooklyn Park.

By high school, DeWayne's musical career developed through playing the piano and keyboard along with producing music. Eventually, DeWayne and some of his friends put together a hip-hop group, called the Soda Boyz, who went on to become well-known in Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

After high school, The Soda Boyz signed with an unknown management company and moved out to California for two years to pursue their dreams of touring and sharing their gift of music for any and all who was willing to listen. After experiencing differences between the group members and management, the Soda Boyz packed up and headed back up North to Minnesota.

At this time, DeWayne, now known as DPJ, decided that experimenting was over. It was time to make a drastic change. Growing up being heavily influenced by Prince and Michael Jackson, DPJ began to alter his music towards the 70's/80's live feel. Alone, he went back into the studio and began creating what he likes to call music with a retrosonic, pop, funk sound. For each and every record created by DPJ, he produced, wrote, played each and every instrument, engineered, mixed and mastered.

Whilst the comparisons with Michael Jackson and others can be easily made, this should be seen in a positive way, DPJ produces very catchy upbeat songs that draw you into his own styling. It's great popular music!

Featured Track:Phone.Website:Official.
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Industrial-electro pioneers Nitzer Ebb are returning from a 15-year hiatus with a new album that renews their unique blend of hard-style industrial-electro-pop. Nitzer Ebb has a way of meshing a variety of different genres into a musical melting pot of powerful rhythms, minimal sequencer bass and hook lines and fierce, chanted vocals.

After originally reforming in 2006, the band’s increasingly active profile included 2010 European tour activities with Depeche Mode and at major festival shows, as well as embracing the challenge of returning to the studio. The result is a piece of work that sounds fresh and modern but without denying their past: the new album, Industrial Complex, is slated for release in North America on November 9th, 2010 thru Artists’ Addiction Records.

Well those are the 'official' words and all I would add is check these guys out if you like anything from Depeche Mode through to Kraftwerk and beyond. Powerful music!

Featured Track:Promises.Website:Official.
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Earlier this year Lefse Records released Woodsman’s Mystery Tape EP, and will follow it up in January with their Rare Forms full length from which “Insects” is drawn. They will be hitting the road with our very own Gauntlet Hair for a slew of West Coast dates beginning next week (tour dates below).

We featured Woodsman back in May of this year and have another great song from them to share, but first of all to recap - Woodsman is an experimental ambient post-psychedelic band based in Denver, CO. The quartet contains two totemic percussionists and two sonic animators who employ electric guitars, feedback loops, and recorded samples to build the dreamy astral soundscapes that define Woodsman’s sound.

Influenced by hazy mountain passes, the cinema of Stan Brakhage, and early 1970’s improvisational recordings by Miles Davis, Woodsman has crafted aural offerings that are uniquely their own. They are constantly exploring and pushing the boundaries of what they are able to do both live and in the studio; they are always one step ahead of their latest recording.

Todd Clouser, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, is an accomplished guitarist, composer, producer, and writer with credits on over a dozen national releases and a number of albums as bandleader, highlighted by the organic compositions of 2006's "Baja", 2008's modern groove record "Beatnik Highway", and his newest collective, Todd Clouser’s A Love Electric, an aggressive, intuitive mash of 70's rock, Curtis Mayfield groove, and modern jazz. Clouser's production and playing span a number of genres, most recently settling in the modern jazz idiom after years of fronting rock acts. With a reputation for energetic and engaging performances, Todd's interest in a synthesis of styles and dedication to craft consistently draws committed crowds healthy in number, and have positioned him as an artist increasingly in demand on the international modern music scene.

With the release of Todd Clouser's A Love Electric, Clouser is gaining notoriety as a vanguard of a new generation of jazz guitarists who have been equally influenced by rock, hip hop, pop, and the pantheon of jazz legends, crossing boundaries in composition and performance. Clouser will spend 2011 touring with A Love Electric, featuring some of Mexico's most celebrated jazz players - Hernan Hecht on drums and Gilberto Cervantes on piano.

This is Genre busting music that has the sort of vibe Isaac Hayes through to Curtis Mayfield always had - love it!

Featured Track:Curtis.Website:Official.
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We started off this edition by stating there would be variety and differing styles and we have yet another dimension for you now! Like those last few seconds before recess, the wait is unbearable. Tapping their feet, humming favorite songs: the crowd is antsy for the show to start. But where’s Mister G? Then, from off stage, the funky guitar groove kicks in, and countless tiny hands reach for the sky. By the time Mister G appears with his trademark hat and bright red shoes, high-pitched shrieks are threatening to crack the windows.

With the 2010 release of his debut children’s album “Pizza for Breakfast,” Mister G burst on to the family music scene. In addition to raves from kids, parents and school principals, he’s caught the attention of some of the leading figures in children’s music. “Live, he's got that rare quality where kids are simply and fully connected,” says Bill Childs, Founder of Kindiefest and host of Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child. As for the CD, Childs says it’s, “insanely catchy, totally engaging for kids and a lot of fun for parents.” And Emmy Award-winning PBS children’s television producer, Tim Banker, praises Mister G’s, “exceptional ability to write children’s songs that teach about complex issues, but are also hysterically funny and not preachy.”

OK so not what you might expect from Beehive Candy except that this is simply buzzing, catchy and suitable for us older grumpy folk as well. Put a smile on my face and just how cool are we featuring Mister G!

Featured Track:Run.Website:Official.
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Pregnant is the work of Daniel Trudeau, a hillbilly savant from the Sierra Nevada foothills (physically), and Sacramento, CA (musically) that makes uplifting electronic/organic hybrids of multi-genre music using guitar, laptop, pedals, and tiddlywinks of all sorts.

He recently finished with a new album entitled Regional Music which is available now via Life's Blood Records.

That's about all I know about Daniel or Pregnant except to say that the featured song has something about it that will have me checking Pregnant out further. Different, but in a good way.

The Hartford, Conn., psych-pop outfit The Inclined Plane has been honing their craft since their last full-length, "I Am Pants," which found them opening shows for the likes of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.

"Paw Meds / Mary All The Time", is a brand new 7-inch, jointly released with the band's own Popular Wallpaper Recordings, and officially available from the 30th November. The new single brings a mix of sounds together, from noisy ’60s psychedelia and harmony-rich folk, to kraut drones and detuned ’90s guitar jangles.

The Inclined Plane draws influence from bands such as Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Galaxie 500, The Clean, Sonic Youth and The Zombies, to name a few.

Regarding their previous 'I Am Pants' release here's what The New Haven Advocate had to say: Sometimes delicate, sometimes assertively pounding, the band grabs hold of so many classic indie-pop signposts (jangly guitars, buzzing organs, white noise, and, most importantly, catchy melodies that shine through it all), it's clear they understand the '80s progenitors of the sub genre and also the early '60s records those bands were referencing.

Sacramento’s Middle Class Rut (Sean Stockham - vocals, drums and Zack Lopez - vocals, guitars) has ventured out on their first U.S. tour in support of their debut album, No Name No Color, which was released on October 5th on Bright Antenna Records through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. The duo’s trek as openers for Filter lasts through November 12th in St. Paul , MN.

MTV has added the first single, "New Low," to the short list of artists that will be featured in the next round of the prestigious “Discover & Download” program and the video has been added to rotation at MTV2 and mtvU.

The bands music artfully blurs the line between heavy and melodic, showcasing the band’s skill for raw, energized rock and roll that is equally complex and immediate. The record is enormous and rowdy, propelled by the duo’s ability to make heavy music tasteful and accessible. Opening number “Busy Bein’ Born” represents the rest of the disc, setting a tone and pace for the impassioned tracks that follow.

No Name No Color compiles 12 songs from a span of several years, showcasing a breadth of time without ever losing its clear impression of cohesion. A few tracks have appeared previously on the band’s three EPs, which they released in 2007, 2008 and 2009, but the album as a whole is a new construction that reveals a band with a unique creative process. The majority of the songs have been tested on the road during tours in the U.S. with Social Distortion, Them Crooked Vultures and Alice In Chains, and in Europe with The Bronx and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.

Night Surgeon are an electro-pop duo from Portland OR. They have just recorded a full length album entitled Day for Night that is due out in February 2011.

What else can I tell you, well the band comprises of Patrick: Vocals, Guitars, Synths and John: Drums, Percussion, Piano, and that's about it really as these guys are clearly keeping the details close to themselves!

They clearly know that Beehive Candy like bands to keep things short and to the point when they contact us and it worked for them because all we could do was listen to their music...

From the two songs we have heard I am mightily impressed, there are a few comparisons I could throw at you OMD for example, however as they mention over on their MySpace site they sound like themselves most of all. Recorded in August this year at the Map Room in Portland, OR with Gabriel Espinosa (Blondie, Fischerspooner), the featured song Roman Error is from the first digital singles from Night Surgeon's upcoming album, which on the strength of the music heard so far is something to really look forward to!

According to their MySpace site Wheels On Fire are - An energetic and wonderfully ragged-sounding rock & roll quartet out of Ohio, Wheels on Fire sounds at times like a vintage late-'60s garage band but the group's gleefully unhinged approach would be welcome in any decade. Members include singers and guitarists Michael Chaney and John Garris, keyboardist Susan Musser, and drummer Matthew Chaney, and the lack of a bass player gives the band a surprisingly sharp and raw sound, marked by blistering guitars and dual lead vocals (and plenty of attitude).

Their latest release "The Cherry Bomb EP" is the first 7" put out on record label, Kind Turkey Records. The band we are told - just got home from touring Europe during the whole month of October, will be out back on the road in the US in the next coming months.

This is a great band and song to finish of this edition of 2010FM, loads of energy and attitude and style. This brand new single features 3 unreleased tracks and 1 demo version of a track from their new LP, Liar, Liar out now on Alien Snatch! Records. First 100 copies are on purple vinyl, remaining 400 are on black. Art is screen printed, and all copies are hand-numbered.

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After all "It's only rock'n'roll"

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. - Hunter S Thompson. The music business may be questionable at times, however please always support the artists if you like what you hear.